This Environment-Conscious Bengaluru Family Carries Its Own Cutlery For A Zero-Waste Trip

IWB Post

June 12, 2018

It’s not an unusual thing for us to find plastic wrappers and bottles and a lot of other left-overs on the streets of India. For some reason, we’re happier with everything else playing the role of a bin except the bin.

Coming across the usual sight of littering recently was a Bengaluru family, who escaped the summer heat to the scenic beauty of North East India. The family of three, mother, father, and son, however, do not believe in adding to the already increasing plastic count.

What do they do to stop that? Carry their kit of cutlery and home-packed snacks. Who wouldn’t want momos and maggi at the top of the breezy mountains? The Bengaluru family is aware of their cravings and hence carry their own steel spoons, forks, plates, and glasses to avoid using and throwing plastic-made cutlery,

In her Facebook post, mother Shilpi Sahu shared her family’s ways for a sustainable environment. She writes, “My Swacch Bharat survival kit during vacations/trips. Steel cutlery, fresh fruits and nuts packed from home and replenished at local street vendors. Insist on tea and coffee to be served in the steel cup even in flight. And water refills asked at hotels and restaurants instead of the bottled water. We feel there is no point in visiting new places without tasting local food and water – we have never fallen sick to stomach viruses despite staying away from bottled water. Also, no point leaving a beautiful place trashed by drinking from single-use plastic bottles.“

She also shared the horrifying and alarming sight of seeing trash almost everywhere. “We are visiting the North East part of India where the beauty of nature is unparalleled and so is the trash left by tourists. It is not a place where recyclability of plastic waste makes any difference because of non-accessibility. Every 100 m of highways, mountain slopes, gullies, melting snow caps, lakes, river banks are crusted with Bisleri, Lays packets, kingfisher bottles, ‘Real’ fruit tetra packs, discarded paper cups, plates, and more,” says Shilpi.

She adds, “The saddest part is the apathy of educated city travelers littering even at serene and hard to reach places at high altitudes. In this 10 days trip, I saw more Bisleri bottles than mountain yaks, rhododendrons, and birds put together. Cleaning up after these tourists is impossible. Frequent signages on Swachh Bharat and not littering doesn’t seem to be legible to them. Sadly, Swachh Bharat is still an idea. Incredibly dirty India is the reality.”